Last week, it was my best week of the year. Although I missed picking some Thursday games, I went 23-3 picking winners last week. I also got 3 games correct with the correct margin: I said Big Bear would win 35-14, and it was 36-15; I said Rim would beat Arroyo Valley 42-7, and it was 35-0 and I said Jurupa Hills would beat Indian Springs 47-14, and it was 40-7.
Another close one was picking Oak Hills to beat Hesperia 48-21 and it was actually 50-21. For the season, I am 267-80-2 with 10 games exactly picking the correct winning margin.

Anyway, here are my picks for the first San Bernardino County playoff games this week:

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Above, a photo from the last time Cajon and San Gorgonio met on the football field, on Sept. 6, 2013 as Cajon’s Edward Kilpatrick tries to break through the San Gorgonio defense.

How big a crowd could be expected for today’s CIF-SS Inland Division matchup, with San Gorgonio hosting Cajon?
“I don’t really know,” San Gorgonio athletic director Matt Maeda said. “We’re the only teams in San Bernardino playing, but REV and Citrus Valley have games, so we won’t get those fans.”
Since San Bernardino schools for years were all in the San Andreas League together, this is uncharted territory to have city schools from different leagues play each other in the playoffs.
Maeda thinks the crowd could rival the biggest in recent years at their stadium.
“It has the potential to be the biggest. The first time REV came here was probably the biggest (in 2009),” Maeda said.
With a large crowd anticipated, both schools are selling tickets in advance at their schools. Both Maeda and Cajon athletic director Rich Imbriani said they pre-sell tickets for games in which a larger crowd is anticipated.
“It’s more of a courtesy for our dedicated fans,” Maeda said. “We have a good following of alumni, and it helps them not to stand in a long line.”

Yucaipa went into Friday’s regular season finale looking like a good shot to grab the CIF-SS Inland Division’s one at-large playoff berth.
All Yucaipa needed to do was to beat Redlands.
But, things didn’t go according to plan and Yucaipa lost to Redlands, creating a three-way tie for fourth with Citrus Valley, Yucaipa and Redlands. While fourth place in an eight-team does not get an automatic berth into the playoffs anymore, the tie did need to be broken in order for one of the teams to be considered for the at-large berth.
And it was Citrus Valley that won the coin flip. That leaves the Blackhawks (4-6) likely vying with Hemet (6-4) from the Mountain Pass League and Temescal Canyon (3-7) of the Sunbelt League for the division’s lone at-large berth.
We will know early on Sunday morning which team made it in, and then later on Sunday the playoff draws will be announced.
Who will get it? I don’t know for sure. On the surface, you would think Hemet based on overall record.
But, there are other factors.
Here is the at-large criteria from the football playoff bulletin:

Criteria utilized by the At-Large Selection Committee:
(a) Head-to-head competition of teams under consideration (4 points)
(b) Overall strength of the league from which the team is entered (1 point)
(c) Overall win-loss record (1 point)
(d) Strength against common opponents (1 point)
(e) Strength of schedule (2 points, using overall win-loss record of opponents)
(f) Free lance teams will be part of the pool for the filling of at-large berths

Head-to-head competition? There was none.
Common opponents? I think Temescal Canyon and Hemet shared one, and both teams lost to Temecula Valley.
Strength of league? The Citrus Belt is considered the strongest league in the division, so Citrus Valley would have the advantage there.
Strength of opponents? That advantage goes to Temescal Canyon. Record of TC’s opponents are 61-39, Citrus Valley’s are 56-44 and Hemet’s are 44-56.
So, with strength of schedule weighing more (two points) than other criteria, the pick could be Temescal Canyon.

It was brought to my attention by some twitter followers (@CallmeEPJ and @RyanMart12) that I had some key mistakes. Ramona got in on a coin flip ahead of La Sierra, and it was suggested CIF would avoid a rematch of San Gorgonio’s 62-0 win, but first-round rematches happen all the time. But in order to keep leagues away from each other until the semifinals, I tweaked it. I had Apple Valley in twice and another not in at all before.

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Friday’s CIF-SS semifinal results, with San Bernardino County teams in bold.

Perhaps the most surprising was the margin of the Rim victory. I predicted the Scots would win, but not by 49 points. By the way, our staff writer Ed Castro had Rim’s Jacob Taylor with 355 yards rushing and seven touchdowns, which would put him at 3,750 rushing yards and 54 touchdowns for the season in 13 games, although the official stats aren’t into maxpreps.com yet. Regardless, he is more than likely the No. 2 rusher in the nation according to maxpreps. That was his spot entering Friday’s games.

I am impressed by the quiet run Kaiser has made. The Cats were nearly forgotten after getting blown out by Summit to open league, but have come up clutch in the last few weeks in winning 7 in a row. Interesting stat: In its last 9 games (during which the Cats are 8-1), Kaiser has scored 14 points or less five times (going 4-1, including all 3 playoff games) and scored over 40 points in each of the other four games (going 4-0).